A user environment, such as a residence or an office building, for example, may include various types of load control systems that may be installed therein for controlling electrical loads. A load control system may include various types of load control devices for controlling electrical loads. For example, the load control system may include lighting control devices, motorized window treatments, heating/cooling devices, or other load control devices capable of controlling an electrical load in the user environment. A user of the load control system may access the load control system via a workstation to configure, maintain, and/or access information about the load control system.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show prior art user interfaces 100, 102 that may be used to provide load control information to the user 126. FIG. 1A illustrates a user interface 100 that includes a floor plan 102. The floor plan 102 may include load control environments 104, 106, which may include motorized window treatments for raising or lowering a covering material to allow or disallow natural light from entering the load control environments 104, 106. For example, the motorized window treatments may control covering materials for covering the windows in the load control environments 104, 106. The floor plan 102 may be a floor plan for the indicated floor 108 of a building.
The user interface 100 includes a control pane 110 for controlling window treatments within the load control environments 104, 106 via motorized window treatments. The control pane 110 may be accessed via one of a number of tabs 112 for controlling different load control devices within the load control system. The shades tab may be selected to view window treatment information and/or control the window treatments in the load control environments 104, 106. The user has to select different radio buttons 150 for displaying status information, setting shade presets, and setting shade positions for the motorized window treatment. A window treatment position may be set in the load control environments 104, 106 by configuring presets for the load control environments in the table 116 and applying the preset configuration. Individual shade groups in the load control environments 104, 106 may also be configured by selecting at least one of the load control environments 104, 106, selecting a shade group in the selected load control environments 104, 106, and adjusting the shade position to a certain level using the shade controls 114. The shade position may be applied by the user selection of the button 118. The table 116 and/or the shade controls 114 may reflect the current status of selected shades based on feedback information from the motorized window treatments.
FIG. 1B illustrates a user interface 120 that includes a floor plan 122. The load control environments 124, 126 in the floor plan 122 may include load control devices, such as electrical dimmers or light emitting diode (LED) circuits for example, for increasing or decreasing an intensity level of the lighting loads in the load control environments 124, 126. The floor plan 122 may be a floor plan for the indicated floor 128 of a building.
The user interface 120 includes a control pane 130 for controlling lighting load intensities within the load control environments 124, 126. The control pane 130 may be accessed via one of the number of tabs 112 for controlling different load control devices within the load control system. The lights tab may be selected to view lighting information and/or control the lighting loads in the load control environments 124, 126 in the load control system. The user has to select different radio buttons 152 for displaying status information, setting light presets, and setting light intensity for the lighting loads. The intensity of lighting loads may be set by configuring a for the load control environments in the table 134 and applying the preset configuration. Lighting intensity levels in individual areas in the load control system may also be configured by selecting an area in the load control system, such as load control environments 124, 126 for example, and adjusting the lighting intensity to a certain level using the lighting adjustment controls 132. The lighting intensity level may be applied by the user selection of the button 136.
As illustrated in the user interface 100 and the user interface 120, monitoring and/or controlling a load control system using current systems may be difficult and unintuitive. The current systems may not be sophisticated enough for a user's purpose. The current systems may be inefficient, as they may be unable to display information for different load control devices at the same time, or allow a user to control the devices while viewing the status of the devices in the load control environment. For example, a user may not easily determine the status of a load control environment, or the electrical loads or load control devices therein. Instead, a user may have to navigate through multiple tabs 112 to obtain and read the status of the load control environment, the status of loads, and/or the status load control devices in the load control environment. A novice user may not understand the meaning of texts in a tabs 112, such as the meaning of Select Shade Preset displayed next to a radio button 150 in the control panel 110 shown in FIG. 1A. The novice user may need to spend time familiarizing himself/herself with the system due to the inefficiency of the display and the unintuitive nature of how the information is displayed.
The current systems also do not provide load control information in detail. For example, the current systems do not allow a user to easily navigate between loads, load control devices, or portions of a load control environment. In the current systems, areas and tabs that are unnecessary to the user's purpose are continuously displayed, consuming screen space and thus unnecessarily consuming battery power. For example, a user of a load control system may wish to access only load control information for one room at the south west corner, but the current systems consistently display the other areas of the floor plan such as 124, and Center in the table 134, thus making the display of the system inefficient.
A user of a load control system may also wish to monitor a load control system by accessing historical energy usage data from different periods of time. The energy usage data at different times in the year may be compared to recognize changes in energy usage or changes that may need to be made to the load control system. Current systems for monitoring historical energy usage data also fail to provide information to users in a format that can be easily understood for the user's purposes.
FIG. 2 illustrates a prior art user interface 200 that includes occupancy status information that a user may view to determine an amount of energy used by a lighting load. The user interface 200 includes a graph 202 that indicates the occupancy status over a period of time. The occupancy status information represented in the graph 202 during the date 210 selected by the user. The user interface 200 also includes the floor 204 and a room 206 for which the occupancy status information in the graph 202 is being provided. To access other historical load control information a user may use the pane 208 to navigate to information regarding other load control devices. For example, the user may select other radio buttons 250 to display different types of historical information related to lighting, or select other tabs to display historical information for different load control devices.
The system shown in FIG. 2 may be unsophisticated and inefficient. A user is limited in the type of information the user is able to obtain regarding the historical energy usage data. For example, the user is limited to viewing load control information for a single type of load in a single location for a predetermined period of time. Tabs 112 that are unnecessary to the user's purpose are continuously displayed, consuming screen space and thus unnecessarily consuming battery power. For example, the tabs 112 labeled Shades, Controls, and Walls are continuously displayed even though the user wishes to access load control information about Lights and selects Lights.
The current systems also lack an alert mechanism to warn the user of a load control system any issues in the building and/or buildings such that the user may fix the issues before energy is wastefully consumed. Thus, it would be beneficial to provide the user with additional historical energy usage data and allow the user to control the data in a manner that is beneficial and efficient to the user.